Monday, August 31, 2009

I've fallen in love with Prototype for the 360. Like most Game Designers out there, I am bitter towards the triple AAA market and the ratio of originality vs. resources. Although I really think that modern game development conforms to this curve:

Now, while Prototype is not terribly original, it is a good game. Why? Because it doesn't try to do anything cute, fancy or ambitiously original. It's just an action-packed, in your face game that we all wanted to play when we were little tinkering with the Doom level editor. In the words of Penny Arcade "You can karate kick a helicopter, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?". The amount of crazily cool stuff that you can do is beautifully executed, polished to a shine, and, barring some very annoying timed mission mechanics, a blast to play.

This is exactly what AAA should strive to do, every time. Leave originality to the indies who can afford to screw around with new ideas and produce their diamonds in the rough. Let the AAA find the golden ideas, and make them awesome and actually worth 80 dollars.

Originality does not equal fun, and what's fun and entertaining does not necessarily have to be original.